The Snyderville Planning Commission Tuesday night postponed a much-anticipated public hearing on the Dakota Pacific project after an oversight left the Zoom meeting capped at 100 participants – not enough for all members of the public who were interested to attend.
Rick Brough reports the Planning Commissioners and county staff deferred the item to their next scheduled meeting on Aug. 11.
The applicants from Dakota Pacific are proposing a mixed-use project of nearly 1.3 million square feet, and 1100 residences on the property approved for the Boyer Tech Park in 2008.
The commission was not scheduled to make a decision.
However, the planners were told early on by their IT staff that the Zoom program licensed by the county only allows for 100 participants, and they had already maxed out that number.
There was another note of confusion when one resident entered the meeting to comment about the capacity issue — then found she was kicked out of the session and couldn’t re-enter, though she wanted to comment on the Dakota project itself.
After a short recess, Chairman Ryan Dickey proposed postponing the public hearing.
Apologizing to the applicants, he said commission had had some egg on its face but they are still getting used to working with the electronic meeting system.
The staff said they could try to contact the company, get the license and hold the hearing later on Tuesday’s agenda.
But the commissioners noted that chagrined residents were already dropping out of the meeting, and there wasn’t an easy way to notify them later that night
Deputy County Attorney Jami Brackin also mentioned to citizens that they can send emails to the Planning Commission, and following the Snyderville Commission’s recommendation, there will still be hearings on Dakota Pacific held before the County Council.
